Beer: Ratings & Reviews

Reviews by TheSixthRing:

4/5 rDev +5%look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Appearance - Pours a clear golden color with ruby highlights and with a 2 finger off-white head. Good retention, resulting in a firm layer of microbubbles across the top. Spotty lacing with good stick.

Taste - Follows the nose. Buttery toffee is the most noticeable flavor, along with light notes of caramel and butterscotch, then a mild coffee flavor hits near the finish. Not much in the way of hops, but what's there does provide a touch of bitterness to keep this beer from being too malt-driven. Slightly acidic and sour in the aftertaste.

Mouthfeel - Medium in body with lively carbonation. Near creamy in the mouth, with a crisp, semi-dry finish.

Overall - I really enjoyed this beer. While it's certainly malt forward, I found great balance in the flavor and mouthfeel. Wasn't too aggressive, hitting in all the right spots. Will I buy this beer again? Hell yes.

More User Reviews:

I have had this many times from the bottle and for the first time had on a nitro tap at the Lucky Dog a local establishment.Great pour (wich I expected)very creamy with a light bronze color,aroma light a little fruity and metallic.Nice mellow taste fruity and even a little smokey?Some metallic notes in there,seemed almost marshmellow-like,had three before I knew it.I really like it out of a nitro tap,hell my wife even had three.

Appearance  The good, rapidly-foaming head settled over a clear, light-brown, whiskey-colored body.

Smell  The aroma of scotch and malt come out nicely at the nose. There seems to be a sweetness in there as well. Its like a combination of grapefruit, orange, and citrus hops.

Taste  I like this. Its a little more subtle and balanced than the St Andrews Ale. The scotch is barely there, but noticeable. The sweetened, toasted malts come on very well followed by a small but refreshing hop balance.

Mouthfeel  This is a little heavier than the St Andrews, but otherwise quite similar. The lack of carbonation and refreshing mouthfeel makes this an easy drinker.

Drinkability  This went down very well. It is a nice and very refined offering from Belhaven.

Pours a thick, deep brown with a reddish tint and very high carbonation that cascades in the glass, presumably due to the can's widget; the head rises out of the can as soon as you crack it. A thick creamy beige head that barely reduces as you drink. Milky and delicious and gives you a moustache.

The flavour is fairly mild: a little bitter but with warm buttery hints and the almost milkshake consistency of a thick stout. Not overpowering but also not bland. I've had it with food and it works. Definitely bready and dense.

The mouthfeel is probably my favorite thing about Belhaven Scottish. I know I'm overusing "thick" here, but it's a thick beer and it coats your tongue in a good way.

Pour/Appearance: Chestnut brown hue with a thin head and slightly below average retention/lacing. Large chunks of yeast were floating in the bottle, mostly towards the bottom.

Smell: The smell is mostly mash/wort with a hint of caramel.

Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied, moderate carbonation.

Taste: Smoked peat, caramel.

Overall: The character is what one would expect a scottish ale to be. It tastes of the earth and the malts that make it up. The bottle describes a mix of malt and nutty flavor. Nutty did not come to mind, but I suppose I could get there.

A: 16.9fl.oz. bottle. Poured a fluffy half a finger head - was expecting more head. The color was a dark copper hazy brown with some golden highlights at the bottom of the glass. Some carbonation visible. Decent lace and spotty on the glass.

S: Initially, I was getting some hoppiness with hint of fruit but the main smell was like a woody grain Whisky. Very appropriate for a Scottish Ale! As the drink progressed, the smell definitely moved into the malty area.

T: Initially, I got the pay-off of the grainy woody Whisky type smell. A very interesting taste for sure. I got some very subtle fruit (predominantly apple type flavor) and hoppy sourness. It felt pretty well balanced but there was complexity without enough of the right type of focus for me. As the drink progressed, it got more malty, caramel but throughout, the aftertaste was a little disappointing - florally with a flat mineral water.

D: A good quality and distinctive ale. Makes me want to try more Scottish Ale and try more from Belhaven for sure. Not sure if I could drink more than one or two of this particular brew. I'd like to try it on tap.

A: Pours a reddish amber color, crystal clear, with a rather abundant foamy head of about an inch or so. Retention is relatively low, reducing to a fluffy white ring of bubbles. Good lacing.

S: Malts are first to the nose, with an earthy secondary aroma. The aroma is interesting, with a smell sort of like toasted bread crust.

T&M: Rather malty with with a balance between sweet and bitter, although I don't really catch any hoppiness to speak of. The flavors have an earthy, almost smoky flavor about them. This brew sits rather full on tongue, with a relatively creamy disposition due to the light carbonation and well matched components. The finish is relatively quick with a bit of a bitter linger.

D: Complex flavors seem to match well with other 'Scottish Ales' that I have had. There is a real earthy flavor and texture that certainly makes it seem believable that it is from a place as rugged as Scotland. Good; recommended.

Nitro-pour from can explodes full of tiny bubbles in the glass gradually frothing to the top with a thick foamy head. Head holds for a very long time in the glass never completely dissipating.Taste was smooth, malty, creamy, sweet typical of a Scotch Ale but with another taste added - caramel?Smooth aftertaste, low ABV make this a perfect session beer.

On tap: A caramel-amber beer with an off-white creamy nitro head -- that stays, sticks and tracks down the glass. Soft aroma with a touch of sulfur, and a soft malt flavour with toasted, smokey and woody/sulfur notes.

Without the nitro, this beer would be just an average ale. With the nitro and it takes on the characters of all other nitros ... an easy drinky, eye-candy pleasing beer. Lovely stuff.

Poured an amber color, light carmel taste, so light that by the second sip you start losing the sweetness, really not much of an aftertaste, nice smooth mouthfeel,nice lace on the glass, really nothing to bragworthy, decent but hard to find something to really recommend it on.

Poured a nice dark amber. Gave it a good heavy pour but the head left quick, leaving behind an eggshell colored ring and a bit left in the center. Scents of smoke and cherries. More watery flavored than I expected from this... Very light mouthfeel. Taste of clubsoda, light maltiness, roasted malts. Decent bitterness with a nice dry finish. Wish there was a bit more body to it, but overall liked it.